Archives for October 2012

What was Abram’s religious understanding prior to hearing and responding to the call of YHWH? The moon God Sin and his daughter Inanna were the patron deities of Ur and the names given to Abram’s family members seem to reflect homage to this Akkadian/Sumerian pantheon. Perhaps this is the reason God changes the names of Abram and Sarai after they enter into covenant with Him.

However, consider this account from the Hebrew Talmud;

Once Terah left his son Abram in his shop to sell the idols which he had fashioned. An old man wished to buy a fresh idol for his birthday. Abram said: “Here is a new idol, completed this very day. Do you not think that you are of more importance than a god a day old?” The greybeard left in confusion, and Abram did not sell the idol.

“You are incompetent as a salesman,” said Terah. “I shall try you out as a priest.” Abram asked his mother to prepare a tasty dish for the idols. He then took an axe, smashed all the idols with the exception of the largest one, in whose hand he placed the axe. When Terah returned, Abram said: “The large idol became incensed at the presumption of the others in wishing to partake of the food before him, and he smashed them.” Terah was angry at this conduct on the part of his son and informed King Nimrod that he had desecrated the temple. Nimrod asked Abram: “Why do you not worship my god?”

“Is it an idol of wood or stone that you mean? If so, how can I worship that which I have seen made before my eyes?” replied Abram.

“Nay, those are for fools. My god is the consuming fire that gives light and destroys,” said Nimrod.

“But how can fire be god if water quenches it?” asked Abram.

“Then worship water,” commanded the king.

“But a cloud is mightier, carrying water where it wills.”

“Worship the cloud then.”

“But the wind is stronger, for it disperses the clouds.”

“Then worship wind.”

“But man withstands wind, and I cannot worship man because death overcomes him.”

“I still maintain that fire is god,” said Nimrod. “I shall hurl you into a cauldron of fire, and then you may be saved by whatever you worship as god.”

Abram was thrown to the flames, but they harmed him not. Nevertheless Nimrod was stubborn in his idolatry.

As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.
~ Joseph Addison

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
~ Carl Jung

Tough choices face the biblioholic at every step of the way–like choosing between reading and eating, between buying new clothes and buying books, between a reasonable lifestyle and one of penurious but masochistic happiness lived out in the wallow of excess.
~ Tom Raabe, Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction

God does not play dice with the universe. He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
~ Terry Pratchett, in Good Omens

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I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education.
~ Tallulah Bankhead

A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truth belongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it even in pagan literature, but rejecting superstitious vanities and deploring and avoiding those who ‘though they knew God did not glorify him as God or give thanks but became enfeebled in their own thoughts and plunged their senseless minds into darkness. Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible mortals and animals and reptiles’ [Rom. 1:21-3].
~ Augustine of Hippo, In De Doctrina Christiana, Book II

Any statements by those who are called philosophers, especially the Platonists, which happen to be true and consistent with our faith should not cause alarm, but be claimed for our own use, as it were from owners who have no right to them.
~ Augustine of Hippo. In De Doctrina Christiana

Gold from Egypt is still gold.
~ Augustine of Hippo

All truth is God’s truth.
~ Arthur F. Holmes

Whatever things were rightly said among all men are the property of us Christians.
~ Justin, 2 Apology 13

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Sometimes the slogan “All truth is God’s truth” is used to justify dealing in any sphere of knowledge as an act of worship or stewardship. The impression is given that just knowing God’s truth and recognizing it as such is a good thing, even a worthy end. But the problem with this is that the devil does it.

“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Corinthians 8:2-3). Which I take to mean that until we know in such a way that we love God more because of it, we do not yet know as we ought to know.

Alongside “All truth is God’s truth,” we need to say, “All truth exists to display more of God and awaken more love for God.” This means that knowing truth and knowing it as God’s truth is not a virtue until it awakens desire and delight in us for the God of truth. And that desire and delight are not complete until they give rise to words or actions that display the worth of God. That is, we exist to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), and merely knowing a truth to be God’s truth does not glorify him any more than the devil does.

All truth exists to make God known and loved and shown. If it does not have those three effects it is not known rightly and should not be celebrated as a virtue.
~ John Piper

And the good fairy said, I won’t leave you money or pretty dresses but I will leave you the spirit to seek your fortune from your own efforts.
~ Louisa May Alcott, from a short story read by Jo in Little Women

He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.
~ Henri Frédéric Amiel

Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.
~ Bruce Barton

Success comes from taking the hand you were dealt and using it to the very best of your ability.
~ Ty Boyd

To find his place and fill it is success for a man.
~ Phillips Brooks

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.
~ Joyce Brothers

One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days, but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life.
~ Edward Butler

It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.
~ Eddie Cantor

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
~ Andrew Carnegie

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
~ Sir Winston Churchill

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
~ Calvin Coolidge

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
~ Bill Cosby

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.
~ Benjamin Disraeli

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
~ Bob Dylan

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
~ Albert Einstein

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
~ Albert Einstein

If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.
~ Albert Einstein

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho’ he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life

Success is feminine and like a woman; if you cringe before her she will override you. So the way to treat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.
~ William Faulkner

Keep these concepts in mind: You’ve failed many times, although you don’t remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. . . . Don’t worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.
~ Sherman Finesilver

Success as I see it, is a result, not a goal.
~ Gustave Flaubert

If you wish in this world to advance, your merits you’re bound to enhance; You must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or trust me, you haven’t a chance.
~ W. S. Gilbert

Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you’ll have left is your character.
~ Vince Gill

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.
~ Jean Giraudoux

Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage and the mind grows heated;
Begin and then the work will be completed.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Succeeding in business and failing at home is a cop-out. For no success in the workplace will ever make up for failure at home.
~ Howard Hendricks

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
~ Thomas Jefferson

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
~ Thomas Jefferson

To succeed, it is necessary to accept the world as it is — and rise above it.
~ Michael Korda

To succeed is nothing, it is an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different, it is character.
~ Marie Leneru

If at first you don’t succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
~ Bill Lyon

The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.
~ Og Mandino

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.
~ David McCullough

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.
~ Christopher Morley

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.
~ Thomas J. Watson

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
~ Tennessee Williams

I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
~ Jonathan Winters

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If you think you are beaten, you are:
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If, you like to win but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost:
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will:
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are:
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
~ Anonymous

Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought. Wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
~ James Allen, in As A Man Thinketh

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.
~ James Allen
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